Talk:

Designing to Amplify

with Jonathan Key

Jon Key will talk about design as a means to amplify and empower communities with a focus on Queer and Trans communities of color. From editorial to branding, Jon investigates strategies for facilitating community building and making marginalized voices visible. In today’s world of racial tensions and alternative facts, the designer can and must be an active combatant in the fight to dismantle oppressive systems. Design can clear space for authentic narratives to (re)emerge. Jon’s recent collaborations include work for The Tenth, a Black Queer Arts & Culture magazine, where storytelling and journalism merge; a children’s book where design and illustration intertwine to carve out havens for Black womanhood and Black Girl Magic; and design as a language of outreach as shown through Codify Art, a Brooklyn-based QTPOC artist collective.

About Jonathan Key

Jon(athan) Key is an art director, designer and writer. He currently freelances serving as a contributing art director to The Tenth Magazine a Black, queer arts and culture magazine; while focusing on branding and design projects for arts and cultural institutions. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a Bachelors of Fine Art in Graphic Design.

Jon is a co-founder and the design director of Codify Art, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist collective whose mission is to create, produce, and showcase work that foregrounds the voices of people of color, highlighting women and queer people of color.